Can't update because mirrors have newer files

Updates are usually every couple of days or so. But, during the last week or so, I can’t update F43 Workstation Edition with Gnome and wonder if I’ll ever be able to. When I go to Software app > Updates > Download, showing a list of 5 apps (System Updates, Chromium Web Browser, Files, Firefox 147.0 → 147.0.1, & Hardinfo2), downloading fails. I’m still using FF 147.0. Apparently, downloading fails because various mirrors have a later version than the Software app seeks. The gap between versions is getting wider.

Example: Error Details > Unable to download updates > Details > Cannot download Packages/f/firefox-147.0.1-2.fc43.x86_64.rpm: All mirrors were tried; Last error: Status code: 404 for https://gigsouth.mm.fcix.net/fedora/linux/updates/43/Everything/x86_64/Packages/f/firefox-langpacks-147.0.1-2.fc43.x86_64.rpm (IP: 162.255.95.138)

I copied the long URL into a browser tab and got a 404. When I edited the URL by deleting only the file name, I gort a directory listing that included firefox-langpacks-147.0.3-1.fc43.x86_64.rpm . In other words, the directory lists a later file than the Software app wants.

I don’t think I should uninstall the Software app to reinstall and try again if reinstalling would be very complicated.

How do I break this cycle or will it break itself soon enough?

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Running sudo dnf clean all might help.

Gnome Software has its own metadata, so the equivalent would be

pkcon refresh force

or you do the sudo dnf clean all as suggested above followed by

sudo dnf update
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What worked was “pkcon refresh force”.

What happened:

I spent a couple of weeks or so before I got to this. Then I opened a CLI terminal in the nonroot account on my Linux platform. What follows uses square brackets as on the original display, braces where normally we’d use angle brackets, blank lines to prevent concatenation of paragraphs, and rows of equals sings to delimit quotations from the CLI:

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{user}@{machine}:/$ sudo dnf clean all

[sudo] password for nick:

Removed 37 files, 18 directories (total of 193 MiB). 0 errors occurred.

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At this (“Removed”), I’m glad I have daily backups, but it turned out my directories were still present, along with another level of subdirectories and their files.

Then:

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{user}@{machine}:/$ dnf clean all

Cache directory “/home//.cache/libdnf5” does not exist. Nothing to clean.

{user}@{machine}:/$ pkcon refresh force

Refreshing cache{white-space}[{progress-bar-already-full}] 100%

Starting{white-space}[{progress-bar-already-full}] 100%

Loading cache[] 100%

Querying{white-space}[{progress-bar-till-full}] 100%

Loading cache{white-space}[{progress-bar-till-full}] 100%

Finished{white-space}[{progress-bar-till-full}] 100%

{user}@{machine}:/$

=====

I ran the Software app > Updates again. It again showed the old failed list of 5 apps to be updated. I clicked to Download, as usual. The attempt finished then quickly displayed that 35 had to be updated, 26 requiring restart and 9 not needing reboot. I had time for some updates without a restart, but time ran out before I could finish that. Then I shut down and powered up without the Internet and the 26 installed without a problem.

I didn’t look through directories to see where 5 files for the Software app might be and if I could have just emptied a directory. Maybe that wouldn’t have worked.

Thank you for the advice. It worked.

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